Thursday, February 6, 2014

Bigfoot Is Full Of Scat!

Robert Crumb

The Ten Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty is the latest installation in the most recent wave of Bigfoot fandom. It's a fundamentally stupid TV show, an odd cross between Animal Planet's highly successful Finding Bigfoot and the avalanche of high-octane game shows which litter the airwaves such as Survivor, The Great Race, and such.

Dean Cain, former Superman actor serves as the peculiarly intense host inviting a gaggle of two-man and/or woman teams who have assembled to discover either compelling photographic or DNA evidence of the existence of the mythical North American phenomenon. The judges seem sober enough, Todd Disotell, a skeptical scientist (the one with the mohawk) and Natalia Reagan a very pretty primatologist, evaluate the "evidence" gathered by the teams.

So far the teams have gathered weak nature photos, some blood samples, assorted hairs, and a lot scat (which is hunter lingo for old shit -- ironically enough). So this show has tumbled along now for several episodes and it's too stupid. The teams are a motley array of true believers, wannabe reality stars, eccentric hunters, and lying-ass frauds. One doofus actually claims he has shot and killed two "Bigfeet". Bull-scat I say! The fact none of the hosts have called this lying dumb ass out on this clear and obvious prevarication suggests that like almost all of these shows it's about generating a little personality heat on the screen and not remotely about some quest for the...ahem...truth about Bigfoot. The game is afoot and it's ratings! (Note: Since I wrote this paragraph one judge has called the stories out for the lies they clearly are.)

Dean Cain might be part of the legacy which might have made us believe a man could fly, but he will never be part of the one which will convince anyone that Bigfoot exists.

I love Bigfoot lore. It's so damn goofy, but so damn earnest too. One person said it was like trying to take the same thrill folks got from the vintage JAWS scare, when folks got nervous about all bodies of water, and transferring that awe and spookiness to the backyard itself. I'd say there's something to that.